Orlando Should Be Embarrassed

AP Photo/Winslow Townson

The Celtics came in without arguably their two most important players in Rondo and KG. The Celtics were held to their lowest first half point total of the season. To top it all off… the C’s lost Glen Davis to a sprained ankle in the 3rd quarter.

And despite all that… and all the reasons to quit… The Celtics cut a 22 point lead down to 3 before a questionable call gave Orlando 2 freebies and a 5 p0int lead with 23 seconds left. That was just too much… and Orlando was able to pull away for an 86-79 win.

Orlando should have blow the Celtics out. In fact, I wish they would have… this way Ray and Paul wouldn’t have played 45 minutes apiece.

This game shows how valuable Rajon Rondo is to the Celtics. It has an effect on everyone else on the team. For example, early in the first quarter, the Celtics ran a play they run a million times… Ray down the baseline off a staggered double screen. If the guy chases Ray under it, he curls and goes to the hoop. If the guy gets caught up and goes over the screen, Ray goes to the corner for 3. Rondo gets him the ball every time on that… but Stephon Marbury held it.

That’s no knock on Steph. It’s a play only a PG in tune with the Celtics offense can make. The Celtics were just completely disjointed in the first half. They got more aggressive in the second half and they made their run.

By the way, did Marbury even play in the second half?

And just to show how important the little things are. The Celtics were below 50% from the FT line for a while there. If they’d hit their free throws early, then we might have been slightly ahead down the stretch, rather than slightly behind. Forget the turnovers… which came mostly as a result of dealing with new players. Free throws are all in your control. It didn’t look like it mattered early… but now we know it could have made a huge difference.

Congrats to Paul Pierce, who passed Robert Parish to become the Celtics 3rd all time leading scorer.

31 Responses

– Bad game. Worst first half in 2 seasons. Paul, Ray and Powe fought valiantly in the 4th, and the Magic were tanking then, and we almost had a shot even after playing 3 quarters of terrible basketball, except that…
– The refs were just SO unbelievably bad, the whole game. Randomly inaccurate, on all sides. Stopped our run cold in the 4th with their absolutely ridiculous, terrible calls. That last off-the-ball foul on Powe was… just stupefying. Damn I HATE the goddamn NBA.
– Not saying we deserved to win. We didn’t. But the Magic sucked in the 4th and we had a good shot, which they ruined.
– Rajon out at least a week, probably more. We’ll be lucky to see Baby back in anything less than 2 weeks. Do ya think maybe Doc will FINALLY let Walker, Giddens and Gabe play a little? We are almost certainly NOT going to make top seed anymore, so I say forget about it and let’s get the young guns more up to speed. Marbury too, needs to shake the rust off. We’ll need them all for the playoffs.
– Doc should have played Gabe a LOT more this time. At least he knows our game. We need to bring Marbury up to speed, yes, but this was not the game for that.
– I wish all NBA refs (well, minus 2 or 3) would just drop dead. Now.

DRJ - March 8, 2009 at 2:46 pm

I really hope Doc won’t go Kc Jones and squeeze 40+ minutes out of Paul and Ray for the next weeks…

ThatGuyOverTheOcean - March 8, 2009 at 2:51 pm

I think he should have given Gabe a bigger shot too to see which Pruitt would show up. Had two rebounds right away and then was pulled. I think Walker and Giddens will play only when everyone is injured. Wonder what the league exceptions to the roster when injuries become dominant

thetitleisours - March 8, 2009 at 3:00 pm

Celtics really did deserve to win this game after what they have done in the second half.

The fact that we have 5 great players in the injury list and managed to diminish the 20+ point lead of the Magic shows how great we are and how we should have won this game.

I really hope that once the Playoffs are about to start, all our players are healthy…

Turnovers, missed free-throws and not capitalizing on a couple of stops in the last 3 minutes. 1st game Rondo’s missed all year and Steph is nowhere near ready to be a starting PG, but the only way he’ll “get ready” is burn-so that was good for him.

I don’t think Steph is ready to be thrown into a game as a starter yet. He can’t learn much that way. Doing that both hurts the team AND does little to improve his overall play. He needs PRACTICE time to learn the Cs game, not useless, pathetic playing time. I like Marbury, but he was the primary reason the first half was the worst in 2 years. Him, and the D, which wasn’t there.

Amazingly, we still had a good shot at winning in the 4th. But two bad calls by the refs (giving them the ball after Howard fumbled it out of bounds, and that ridiculous last foul on Powe) killed us.

DRJ - March 8, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Does any other team besides the Celtics not get home court advantage. I guess when you win the championship you need to beat the other team AND the refs.

Nora - March 8, 2009 at 3:24 pm

Refs didn’t seem to be out to get us this time. They were bad everywhere, both sides. We just happened to catch some of their worst calls when it mattered most. I think….

DRJ - March 8, 2009 at 3:27 pm

Orlando is a pretender and I for one thought this team was one of the top 5 teams I was wrong no threat to anybody.

AINGELIVES - March 8, 2009 at 3:41 pm

I agree with Aingelives.

We almost beat Magic while we were behind 20+ points and our team is banged up by injuries.

Why exactly should we be embarrassed. I think the blog entry clearly states why Orlando should be embarrassed. How about reading it. They barely beat a team depleted with injuries. And if a few questionable calls did not go Orlandos way they would have lost.

Nora - March 8, 2009 at 6:39 pm

i am not embarrassed to say on our behalf that we are not embarrassed to say that yaya should be embarrassed for saying we should be embarrassed for saying Orlando should be embarrassed… for embarrassing themselves.

DRJ - March 8, 2009 at 6:41 pm

Well said DRJ… I think.

The reason Orlando should be embarrassed is that this was their chance to send a message, and they blew it. They want to think they’re championship contenders, and they’re not. They’re a good team, but they’re not championship level.

you guys should be embarrass for saying orlando should be embarrass…
yaya – March 8, 2009 at 5:34 pm

You should be embarrassed for not knowing how to write.

Danno - March 8, 2009 at 6:54 pm

They beat you, but they should be embarrassed. Righttttt.

BringDFishBack - March 8, 2009 at 9:20 pm

DFish, shut up, honestly… You clearly do not know whats going on. The Celtics have half of their regular rotation out, of course the Magic should be embarrassed for nearly losing that game. Don’t comment if you don’t know whats up.

JD - March 8, 2009 at 9:55 pm

[…] to start in tonight’s game against the Magic. A game in which Red’s Army says Orlando should have been embarrassed in winning. The loss puts Boston two games behind the Magic, and with Rondo and KG missing both […]

why do you guys blame every single game on the refs….
i thought that “champs” win with bad reffing i thought that “champs” can pull through injuries i thought “champs” can win on any condition…
dont make excuses and admit that a loss is a loss

Mamba818 - March 8, 2009 at 10:56 pm

danno! sorry to hear about rondo…how long till you start talkin trash about SM. Isn’t it his job to help because of injuries? Bet SM is gonna get a lot of questions about stupid stuff and he blows. Good luck…I see 4th or 5th seed for you! OMG we had a giant party today! Happy Stephon Marbury Is Dirt Day!

Jason if you are a Lakers fan and you most likely are since they love to troll here4 so much.all I have to do is point out the whining Lakers fans did about Bynum. Take you own advice if you are a Lakers fan.

Nora - March 9, 2009 at 2:19 am

When your team loses 5 or so players to injury then you can tell us how to act until then YOU should shut up.

Nora - March 9, 2009 at 2:24 am

You guys are a hoot! Whaaaa… the refs don’t like us… Whaaaaa… everybody on our team is hurt… whaaaaaa. You know were you can shove that cloverleaf?

bigblue - March 9, 2009 at 4:27 am

Why do you flaker fans come to this site to gloat after every celtics loss. Its pathetic. No matter how much shit you talk after winning 2 regular season games it still doesnt make up for that whoopin we gave you in the finals last year. I felt sorry for laker fans after that loss and wasnt going to say anything, but all you laker trolls, coming to celtics blogs and talking shit when we’re down, you are the most pathetic fans in the world. YOU SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED!

flakertrollsmasha - March 9, 2009 at 1:28 pm

Oh man nothing I love more than being grouped with Laker fans and having something said that has absolutely nothing to do with my point. My point is they beat you, give it up. Nothing for them to be embarrassed about, they won the game and thats all that matters. I guess you guys should be embarrassed the Lakers won a couple games in the Finals last year without Bynum? Definitely not, because you won the series. No matter how a team wins, its a win and they shouldn’t be embarrassed.

BringDFishBack - March 9, 2009 at 5:40 pm

[…] like their last loss to the Magic, the Celtics played like crap for 3 quarters, rallied in the 4th only to fall short in the final […]